Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (42 page)

“What’s wrong with him?” Abby wondered aloud.

“My guess is the same thing that’s wrong with everyone else.”  Although what that was, Jessica hadn’t a clue.

“Well, this one doesn’t seem too dangerous right now, but let’s hurry up in case that changes.”  Abby turned away from the steps and began heading up the street.

Jessica lingered a little longer, drawn in by those blank eyes, but then hurried after her.  All this sneaking up and down the streets was getting exhausting.  And the boots Abby had given her didn’t quite fit.  They were about half a size too small, so her toes were rubbing against the ends.  She wasn’t wearing socks either, just some thin panty hose that had likely torn.  She just wanted to sit down and take a break.  She wished she were at home, curled up under her big blanket with Cillian’s strong arms wrapped around her.

Where did that come from?  She didn’t need Cillian.  She didn’t
need
any man.  Although having someone there to protect her would be nice.  Not like this harsh journey through hell.  It seemed like the whole city had been flipped upside-down.  Everything looked mostly the same, but had taken on this hostile, sinister quality.  The tall buildings that used to make her feel important, now felt like hollow monoliths.  Not places of work and productivity anymore, but barricades and hindrances forming a terrible maze of fear.  And the noise.  Everywhere you went, you could hear sirens, screams, car alarms, and gunfire.  It was overwhelming.  Most of it Jessica could block out, but not so much the screaming and certainly not the gunfire.

Jessica knew fear.  She was far better acquainted with it than she would have liked.  This was different though.  This was more continuous.  It was lasting longer with no end in sight.  She didn’t know how much longer her adrenaline would hold out, how much more her body and even her mind could take.

* * *

“I can see it,” Abby shocked Jessica out of her own head
,  “it’s just ahead.”  She pointed up the street.

Just peeking out over a shorter building was a large brick smoke stack.  Jessica realized she had no idea what the chimney was for or what it connected to, but knew that it had always been there and was a defining feature of the hospital.  She had never been more relieved to see it.

The hospital took up a large area.  It was short, but wide, and dominated a whole block.  Abby and Jessica were currently approaching it from what was considered the backside.  The front, for general admissions like planned surgeries and visitors, was on the other end of the building, a block over, across from the subway.  The closest entrance to them was down a small alley-like street that was used for deliveries.  They avoided this entrance because it was kept locked and a key was needed to get in.  On the opposite end of the delivery doors, was the ER’s walk-in.  Between that and where they were, was the ambulance bay.  They silently agreed that these were the best doors to enter by and headed for them.

Jessica had only been to this hospital once, when Cillian had to have his tonsils removed.  That was a planned surgery though.  She had never been to the emergency side of the building.  The ambulance bay was in a nook off the street.  Two lanes led in and out of the nook
, which was between two sections of the hospital.  Where they connected was a circle large enough for the ambulances to turn around.  In the centre of this circle, stood a large and rather majestic tree, which surprised Jessica.  Most people probably never noticed it.  She was curious about the plaque sitting at the base of the tree, but Abby headed straight for the doors, and Jessica didn’t want to be left behind.  Other than the tree and a few dropped medical supplies, the bay was empty.

The ambulance entrance doors slid open automatically as they approached them; the place still had power.  Inside was a little antechamber-like
room, which held extra gurneys.

Finding blood on both the automated doors and the inner swing doors, prompted Jessica to admit, “I don’t like this
.”  The fact that they hadn’t seen anyone yet was also troublesome.

“Claire’s here somewhere.”  Abby pressed forward.  She went up to the swing doors and pushed one open with her field hockey stick.

While Abby stuck her head through the opening, Jessica walked up to the other door and looked through the blood smears on the glass.  She didn’t see anyone on the other side.  The lighting was dim.  Some of the lights must have been broken, or maybe they were running on emergency power.  Some of the lights flickered.

“More darkness,” Jessica sighed.  It was like being in a horror movie, or a terrible nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.

Abby stepped through the doors, so Jessica followed her.  They walked down the short hall to some sort of nurse’s desk at the end.  Here, blood was smeared on everything, even the ceiling.

“It doesn’t look like anyone is here,” Jessica stated the obvious.

“Claire will be here somewhere,” Abby sounded so sure.

Jessica snapped, “Where?  Over in that bloody corner perhaps?  Or maybe behind one of those torn curtains?  Or could she possibly be in that room over there that has no lights on in it?”

“I get your point,” Abby sighed, shrinking back from Jessica.

“Do you?” Jessica scoffed.  “You convinced me it would be safe here.  That there would be cops.  I don’t see any cops!”

Abby looked like she was about to snap back when a groan issued from behind a curtain.  Both girls went pale, wide eyed, and totally silent, not even breathing.  The curtain rustled momentarily but wasn’t pulled back.  Maybe it was just their imagination.  Similar hallucinations were all; that whole mass hysteria thing.  Another groan sounded, but this time closer.  How could it be closer?  Nothing had come around the curtain.

Jessica had a thought and took another step toward the desk, looking down behind it.  On the floor between the desk and the curtain, a man was dragging himself along with one arm.  His other arm and both his legs were gone, his torso a ragged mess with the guts hanging out.  Jessica gasped, which was an understatement.

“We should go,” Abby swallowed hard.

“Go where?” Jessica’s anger came back in a flash.  “Go where, Abby?  Back to your place?  No thanks.  One trip through the subway was good enough for me.”  She walked around the desk and over to the man.  The man reached up at her groaning, his eyes bloodshot.  “What is wrong with you?” she screamed at him.  At it.  “What do you want?”

The man just continued to groan and reach.

Jessica’s anger
, frustration, and fear all came out at once in a tidal wave.  With a blind fury, she raised the shovel high above her head and brought it down with a heavy thwack.  Then she raised it again and swung.  And swung.  And swung.  With every lift and fall of the shovel, she mentally screamed,
Why?  Why?  Why?
  It wasn’t until Abby grabbed her arms and made her stop that she realized what she had done.  The man’s head at her feet was a disgusting, pulpy mess that matched the rest of him.  She had gone beyond killing him.  He reminded her of the rat she had killed in the subway.

Jessica suddenly dropped the shovel and turned away.  She ran three steps before having to double over and puke her guts out.  This was all some terrible nightmare from hell.  How could this be happening?  Abby’s sneakers appeared in her line of vision, and she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Jessica looked up and met Abby’s eyes.  They weren’t judging or disgusted like she imagined they’d be.  They were frightened, and not of her.  Abby was probably feeling all the same things Jessica
was; only she had channelled them into finding Claire.

“Let’s search the building.  Maybe she’s upstairs somewhere,” Jessica offered Abby a weak smile.  Maybe she could channel them as well.

“Okay,” Abby nodded.  “Do you still want your shovel?”  Jessica had dropped it when she had turned away, and Abby had picked it up.

The moment was broken by a loud banging coming from behind one of the doors.  The door had the shade drawn, but it looked like something was trying to push through.

“Yes,” Jessica quickly nodded and Abby handed her the shovel.  The blade was covered in blood and bits of hair but Jessica didn’t really notice.  They didn’t know exactly where they were going, except that it was away from that door.

* * *

They passed by several odd and terrifying sights.  A window to one room had two people standing up against it, one a doctor, the other a patient.  Both of them were soaked in blood.  The patient had a bunch of IVs, electrodes, and bandages hanging off of him while the doctor had a scalpel sticking out of her neck.  A bed they went by had a pregnant woman strapped to it.  She thrashed and raged against the restraints, a large slash across her pelvis indicating her baby was elsewhere.  Another bed had a body in it, but this one was unmoving.  It had been pulverised and torn to pieces.  It was barely identifiable, just mush and bits of bone.  A third bed had a very peaceful unmoving body.  It would have looked like a normal person that had just gone to sleep if it weren’t for the handle of a knife sticking out of the eye socket.  They passed by the triage area, which was its own horror show.  Thankfully, the glass was heavy and practically unbreakable, and the doors into the rest of the hospital were sealed unless someone from this side opened them, or someone inside had a code.  The area was full of horrifically damaged and frightening people.  Almost all of them rushed the glass when Abby and Jessica came into view.  Men, women, and children, it didn’t matter.  Something had happened to all of them.  Those that didn’t rush the glass lay prone on the floor or sat up in chairs, very dead.  Jessica was glad they had decided to go through the ambulance bay doors instead of walking around to the doors that led into that area.  That would have been worse than stepping into piranha-infested waters.

Abby approached the glass cautiously, looking at each person’s face.

“What are you doing?”  Jessica kept her distance, appalled by every one of them.

“Checking if Claire is in there,” Abby’s voice came out as a cracked and hoarse whisper.  She went right up to the glass, trying to see past the swarm.  All of them gathered right up against the glass around her, reaching over each other to get at her.  Those closest to Abby were smushed right up against the flat surface, their faces distorting as they tried to bite at her.

“Do you see her?” Jessica asked from her position of distance.

“No,” Abby shook her head.  “You?”

Jessica didn’t really want to look at the faces.  She didn’t know how Abby could stand it.  “No.”  She didn’t exactly lie, she just wasn’t looking.

Abby continued to stand there, almost studying them.  She had acted like this in the subway station too; it was kind of creepy.  Jessica was terrified just being as close as she was now.

“Come on, let’s search the other floors,” Jessica tried to draw her away.  Abby didn’t seem to hear.  “Abby!”

Abby startled and took a step back.  “Yeah, let’s keep looking.”

They came across a set of elevators but decided to take the stairs instead.  Being stuck in a small box when there may not be a complete power system seemed like an awful idea.  They headed up to the second floor where signs directed them to a cafeteria.  The cafeteria doors were barricaded with big file cabinets and something was pressing to get out.

“Please don’t tell me you want to search in there.”  Jessica looked at Abby.  Abby shook her head no.

They hurried away from the cafeteria.  Next, they came across a doctor’s lounge and went inside.  Other than a small pile of bandages sitting in a corner, the place looked undisturbed.  Jessica spotted a fridge and her stomach growled with hunger.  She hadn’t even realized she was hungry, but the sight of the fridge made her starved.  She walked over and opened it up.  The fridge was occupied by some plastic containers with the doctors’ lunches in them.  She took them out and looked at what was inside.  Jessica was a vegetarian, so she settled for a couple of salads that looked like they had no meat in them.  Even if she weren’t a vegetarian, she wouldn’t be able to eat meat today.  She also took out a milk carton and an apple juice.

As soon as she turned away from the fridge with her food, Abby took her place, rummaging.  Jessica put her pilfered feast down on a table and went looking for a fork.  She found a drawer of them and handed one to Abby, who placed a container of something in the microwave.  The microwave still worked despite the power system glitches.  It seemed only some of the power grids were haywire.

Jessica sat at the table and dug into the garden salad first.  Food had never tasted so good.  Even the first few mouthfuls tasted amazing despite the lingering aftertaste of her own vomit.  She plowed her way through it and was done by the time Abby sat down across from her.  She had penne noodles covered in meat sauce with fried chicken bits and mushrooms.  She devoured her food nearly as fast as Jessica did.  Jessica downed the apple juice and then ate her second salad, a Caesar, but slower than the first.  When Abby finished, she found some glasses and poured milk out of the carton into two of them.  The girls split the milk until the carton was empty.

* * *

Jessica leaned back in her chair with a sigh.  Being full never felt so good.  “What floor do you want to check next?”

Abby shrugged, “Do you know what floor they would do CT scans on?  Claire might have ended up there.”